Rope Edged Link Bracelet

Six round, rope-edged links separated by sets of three vertical balls make up one of Spratling's earliest bracelet designs, a piece that shows the First Period language of beaded silver and twisted-rope borders applied to a flexible band. The rope edge and ball were among the cord- and bead-derived motifs Spratling drew from saddle ornament and pre-Columbian sources in his first years (Morrill, pdf p. 39).

The original was very lightweight with an open back, and the pin hinges on the side of each large disc on this example are perfectly plain, lacking the spiral ornamentation seen on others of the design, an internal variation worth noting against other surviving examples.

The bracelet is recorded in Morrill and Berk's Mexican Silver and in Goddard's field guide. It has been reissued in a heavier, slightly less detailed form, and copies are plentiful, so a light, open-backed original with an early mark is what separates the period piece from the rest.